Day Three: Trees in a Field by Homer Dodge Martin
Welcome to day three of 100 days of tonalism.
Painted after - Trees in a Field by Homer Dodge Martin , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel
Today's study is 'Trees in a Field' by Homer Dodge Martin.
This one went quickly as you'll see from the shorter video. It's a very simple subject as I talked about in the video. Homer Dodge Martin was a first generation tonalist. I've see some of his actual paintings at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and his work is awesome. There is one other painting by Martin in the 100 day series that I painted, though we won't be seeing that for awhile.
Video setup ig going pretty sweet now. I spent a part of today setting up Twitter and Tumblr accounts although I'm not sure if I'm going to link this blog up with Pinterest. Still thinking about Instagram too. Keeping up with all these social networks is a job in itself but it's worth it to spread the word about tonalism. Impressionism had it's resurgence, now it's time for magic and mystery to make a comeback in the painting world.
I was torn about releasing my videos free of charge but if they help spread awareness of tonalism I reckon it's worth it to share my years of hard won knowledge with all of you. I'm not saying mine is the only way to make a tonalist painting. In fact
has a lot of videos on Youtube that are fantastic. I got a lot from watching many of them.
Cheers
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about 'Trees in a Field' by Homer Dodge Martin.
Initially I wasn't going to do this one. I'm adverse to silhouetted trees against skys in general. I boosted the local contrast of my reference prior to doing my study. As it turns out the original painting is not as silhouetted.I mentioned in the video thats theres a reproduction of the painting in my copy of '
A History of American Tonalism' by David Cleveland
. Looks like that book is out of print but there are copies around. I highly recommend it.
This painting went quickly and overall I'm really happy with it. I feel I captured the essence of Mr. Martins painting. One thing that he's done here that I usually do not do is portrayed a cloudless sky. Now that I am posting the original reference, I can see that I removed a bit of yellow tint.
To see more of my work visit my site
Original painting - Trees in a Field by Homer Dodge Martin